


I See You

by TheMomeRath



Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies), Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: M/M, PN!AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-11
Updated: 2015-07-11
Packaged: 2018-04-08 18:10:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,675
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4315200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheMomeRath/pseuds/TheMomeRath
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jack can't help but watch. He's afraid to speak out, but he knows he wants to.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I See You

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired partly by Mika and partly because I really liked PN!AU back when I wrote it. Repost from my tumblr.

Jack glanced up from his ipod at the other boy who had just gotten into the train and sat across from him. Brown hair, freckles from his face to his skinny arms to the legs that poked out of khaki shorts.

He meant to glance, anyway. He realized after about thirty seconds that he was staring a little too much, so he quickly looked back down at his hands as his face reddened.  _Did he notice me? Crap, I hope he didn’t…_  He slowly raised his eyes back up to the boy, who had pulled out a book and not really paying all that much attention to anything beyond that.

Blue eyes wandered up and down the other’s frame. That brown hair fell on the top of thick-rimmed black glasses that rested on the tip of an adorable button nose. Jack imagined himself kissing it.  _I am such a creep,_  he realized, and looked away once more. But the other boy’s face lingered in his mind.

Strangers usually gave Jack a second glance. The eyebrow piercing would have been normal enough, but it was accompanied with several more on his ear, nose, and lips, and if someone looked a little further, they would end up finding more on his tongue as well as other places around his body. Usually they didn’t get that far. Seeing someone with a face full of metal tells you “He does not mind pain and he will not hesitate to fight you if you cross him.”

Truth was, though, Jack just liked piercings. They felt cool. Maybe not while he was getting them- there were a couple that had left him crying- but afterward, they felt right. Not that he could really explain that to anybody. After looking at him once, people avoided eye contact, automatically assuming he was definitely someone who wouldn’t want to talk.

That was just fine with him. Jack was okay being labelled as a punk or a “miscreant” (as some older people had referred to him) because it meant he didn’t have to try to think of something to say. His piercings and icy blue dyed hair might have made him look intimidating, but he was about as shy around people as they were afraid of him.

But this kid hadn’t even looked twice. He just sat down and started reading.

Jack squinted to try to see what the title of the book was. In his mind’s eye, he imagined asking and striking up a conversation, probably ending with the boy smiling and asking him for his number.

“So you like to read too, then?” the boy would ask, smiling gently with those thin lips that Jack had already imagined himself brushing his own against, knowing full well he never would actually get there.

Jack would reply with a smile, suddenly not shy. “Yeah, I really like fantasy. I’m waiting for the next book in my favorite series, but I think the author has decided to give up on all his fans.” He’d laugh at his own joke, and the boy would too, not at all upset that his own reading had been interrupted, then say how happy he was that someone else liked that series.

But it wasn’t quite going to happen that way. Jack would stare across at him and never say a word, just daydreaming about the things they’d do. Not pervy things. Just things like coffee dates.

Did he drink coffee? Jack didn’t. He liked smoothies- they were sweet and refreshingly chilly, especially during the hot summer months. Maybe the boy liked the same flavor and they’d share- not with different straws, but with the same straw, like couples did.

Did couples do that? Jack didn’t know. He felt like they should, though. It sounded cute.

Maybe they’d hold hands and walk together in the park, chatting. People would look at them and remark to each other how strange of a couple the pair were, but they’d be too focused on the feeling of their fingers twined together to really notice.

The brown haired teenager would probably have to pry to get Jack to talk much at first, but it wouldn’t take long. At least, Jack hoped. He wasn’t sure how long it took him to open up with someone. He couldn’t even remember meeting his best friends.

How would the boy react when they met his friends? Maybe Tina, with her purple-green-blue hair dye, would intimidate him with her overly-friendly nature. But maybe the boy would just eat it up. That tattoo artist that he and Tina talked to so often would probably look at the boy and immediately embrace him praising Jack for having such a cute boyfriend, half choking him with the smell of stale cologne and the tattoo parlor.

Or maybe they boy would never meet them because Jack wouldn’t ever open his mouth to say “Hello.”

He sighed. The boy looked up at him for half a second, and Jack’s eyes flew wide open, but the boy only smiled and glanced back down at his book. Pulse racing, the image of green eyes flew through Jack’s head- those eyes were like an entire forest all packed into little circles.

Yeah. Jack was definitely too intimidated to say something.

It was kind of funny to think about- here he was, a rather intimidating figure, shocked to silence by a stranger on the train who wore khaki shorts and a comic-book tee-shirt. But Jack didn’t laugh mostly because he was out of breath.

He looked back down at his ipod. It hadn’t been playing any music for two minutes. _Oops._  He scrolled through the list of songs and finally settled on a soundtrack for one of his favorite movies.

He was afraid to admit it to Tina, but there was something absolutely endearing about really old movies, no matter how corny they got. once they hit the 1980s, movies got better special effects, but lost some of their charming silliness. Anyway, those old horror movies weren’t nearly as grotesque as truly scary.

Jack couldn’t handle modern horror, so whenever he was asked to go to a new movie with Tina, he made up an excuse, hoping she wouldn’t catch on to the pattern and drag him there, quickly exposing him as the jumpy (and easily horrified) moviegoer that he was. Instead, he sat at home and watched the oldest Lon Cheney movies he could. Boris Karloff, Vincent Price, Julia Adams- the old-fashioned love-story heroes and villains of those movies were more than enough to keep him entertained.

What if the boy liked horror movies? Jack’s mind wandered quickly back to him and his comic-book tee shirt and he frantically raced to try to think of what movies he would most likely enjoy. If they were horror, Jack would probably cling to him the whole way through. He shuddered at the idea of watching some of the modern remakes with all their bloody glamour and he closed his eyes.  _Maybe I’d watch them with him. Maybe._

It took him a second to realize it wasn’t really a risk if he never talked to him. Maybe the boy likes sappy romance and maybe he liked horror, but he’d never know if they never actually talked.

_Oh well. Looks like we’re not having any movie nights any time soon._

Asthe train slowed to approach the stop where Jack would leave, the green-eyed teen looked up from his book and glanced out the window.

 _Oh, god, is he getting off now?_  Jack waited before standing up and saw him mark his place with a bookmark and slip the book into a shoulder bag.  _Crap. It looks like he is._

Somewhat at unease, he stood quickly and rushed off the train,ending up standing some distance away next to a city bench to relax before he left for the library where he worked.

“Hey, you left something on your seat!”  Jack turned and saw the boy who sat across from him holding his backpack in the air and frowning. “You left pretty fast. Are you okay?”

Jack gulped. “Yeah.”  _No, I am not okay. You’re too cute and even your voice is cute and you walk cute and oh my god I am so not okay._  “Thanks.”

“Don’t worry about it.” The boy adjusted his bag on his shoulder. “I was a bit worried something had happened.”

“I’m fine.” Jack turned, pulse racing once more.  _Do you have any idea how gorgeous your smile is?_  he found himself rooted to the ground despite his nearly overwhelming desire to just run.

While he stood, avoiding eye contact by staring directly into the sun and squinting, he heard the boy shuffle his feet. “Are you sure you’re okay? I don’t start work at the library for another fifteen minutes, so I could help you if you need it.”

 _He works at the library. Oh my god, no. Nope, this is horrible. And really great. And terrible._  “How long have you worked there?” He looked down from the sky. his eyes hurt now, but at least he wouldn’t be as distracted by the other boy’s ridiculously cute face, ignoring the other question.

“It’s my first day. How about you? Where are you off to?”

Jack hesitated. “I work at the library too.”

“Really?” The boy’s face lit up. “That’s great! We can go together, then. So the walk doesn’t get lonely.”

 _Yeah. And so I can have a heart attack the whole way there._  “That sounds great.”

“My name’s Hayden, by the way.” He stuck out his hand. “How about you?”

Jack gently shook the hand that was stuck out to him. “Jack.”  _And his hands feel good, too. God._

“Well, it’s nice to meet you, Jack.” His insanely adorable face never dropped its bright expression. “Maybe we’ll get to know each other better at work. We could eat lunch together or something like that.”

 _Oh my god, my face better not be getting as red as I think it is._  “Yeah, that would be nice.” 


End file.
